The Grapes of Wrath

by Gene Shelburne

“Mine eyes have seen

         the glory of the coming

            of the Lord;

    He is trampling out the vintage    

         where the grapes of wrath

            are stored.

    He hath loosed the fateful

         lightning of His terrible

            swift sword . . .”

 

It was in the second year of our Civil War that Julia Ward Howe wrote the words to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She was an avowed abolitionist, and as the Northern armies went out to battle, in her mind she saw the righteous judgment of God at work. Slavery was an abomination worthy of God’s wrath, and she visualized it as an evil being crushed under his feet.

Mrs. Howe borrowed her powerful imagery straight from the Bible. Her skillful adaptation of biblical terminology, and the stirring music (an American folk tune) to which her poetry was set, still provides us with an inspirational hymn that is both patriotic and religious.

In describing God’s judgment upon the evil earth, Revelation 14:19 says, “The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes, and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.” Wrath may be one of God’s attributes that we under-emphasize nowadays, but it’s actually the reverse side of his grace. It’s divine tough love. Can a holy God completely ignore those who despise his grace and persist in doing evil?

What are some other situations where we should expect to see God’s wrath at work? According to Romans 13:4, governmental authorities are God’s servants, his agents of wrath to punish wrongdoers, and they do not bear their swords for nothing.

Since September 11, when such unspeakably evil wrongdoing took place, war has been on our minds. Do you agree that as our government leads us into war, it is acting as God’s servant, an agent of his wrath, bringing punishment on the wrongdoers?

As we think in terms of Mrs. Howe’s great hymn and the Scripture which inspired it, we would all do well, on a personal level, to recall these words: “He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat.” We want our own hearts to be right with God. The great winepress of his wrath is no place to be. Let’s live in his grace.